Of Dirty Phone Calls, Marmots, Zany Mom Schemes, Aquariums, and Everyone Dying in Narnia

Well, Alyssa and I have both been working for two weeks now and everything seems to be going swell. I'm writing program specifications for ESL software, and Alyssa...well...I'm still not exactly sure what she does. Something to do with deaf people and telephone conversations. She's working a 12-hour shift today, and tomorrow she works AGAIN. Sheesh-a-rama! But she seems to be having a good time, and apparently she hasn't had to handle any phone sex calls yet (I heard it through the grapevine that that happens there sometimes). As for me, I'm quite enjoying working on the sixth floor of a building that overlooks a protected wilderness area. There's all kind of crazy crap down there--Russian olive trees and hawks and marmots (although I can't see the marmots anymore since they moved me to a different office--sniff sniff) and yesterday there was even a freaking DEER strutting around like it owned the place. Maybe I'll see some mountain lions one of these days. Rowrrr!

When we're not working, Alyssa and I have been looking for houses. Her mom has a zany scheme to buy a moderately priced place and let us rent it for $500 a month. I'd be fine with just renting our own place, but $500 rent is pretty decent, and that would give us a chance to save up for a house and young 'uns and whatnot. Alyssa's mom put in an offer on a condo in a gated community not far from here, in West Jordan. Nice place. That would be pretty gnarly if everything worked out, but it's a foreclosure and apparently the banks "play by their own rules" (the weasels) so we're not holding our breath.

Besides house-hunting, Alyssa and I play music together a lot (although now we've taken to singing a bit too, since her mom has a virtual plethora of 60s and Broadway songbooks--how can you go wrong there?) and read together. Last night we finished the Narnia series, at long last. Yeah, (spoiler coming up here!) everyone dies, but it's a good kind of death. Last week was our anniversary, so on Saturday we went to the aquarium in Sandy. I think I expected it to be a lot bigger, but they had some fun animals, like moray eels and stingrays they let you mess with (although, with regards to the stingrays, I can officially say "Been there, done that"). Good times, my friend.